The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-11-16
ANCIENT IRRIGATION.
The Old Kings who Dug Fertilizing
Canals I'm the Euphrates valley
Four Thousand Years Ago.


Four Thousand Years Ago.
Babylonia was indeed land of rv-
crs, owing to its existence to the two
streams which flowed through IT, year
by year adding to its growth by the
deposit of rich alluvlal soil. The early
occupants of the land recognized their
debt to these fertilizing waters, and
their gratitude found expression in the
names which they gave to some OF
them. The slow Euphrates, which
year by year rose to spread its broad
floods of water over the fields, was
called the "Liie of the Land" the sis
ter-stream derived its name Of 1.-THE
Rusher' from its narrow and more
rapid course. 10 other rivers which
can not now be identified such names
as "The Mother of Canals, "The Riv-
er Flowing with Abundance" 'The
Crystal River" and other such names
were given. Ea, the old culture god
of Erldhu, the god of the ocean, be-
came "The God of the Rivers" and
especially of the Euphrates, and Rim
man the ram-god bore the title of
"The One Who Causes the Floods to
Flow in the Canals" BY these canals
a network of fertilizing streams was
spread through town and village, gar
den and field.
How early this work commenced we
do not know, but it must have been in
prehistoric days, for among the most
ancient of the cuneiform characters we
find the Geographic sign for the canal,
and in the hymns of the primitive re-
lgous schools of Eridhu, which reach
back beyond the forth millennium be-
fore the Christian era, canals are
mentioned. Indeed, like the rivers,
they'werc sacred, and prayers were
offered to them as to the greater Tigris
and Euphrates. A portion of one of
these hymns is preserved in frag-
mentary tablet discovered by Prof.
Sayce. "Thou canal, l have made
thee In the day when / dug thee,
then the great gods were beside thy
bank, and Ea, the king of the deep. had
created blessings within thy heart, and
he presented his flood before thee. o
thou mighty river, supreme are thy
members (streams). That which is
evil in my body, in thy camel erase it
and bear it with thy stream. May l
glorify that which is made. May i ex-
alt thy spring" This small fragment
suflices to prove that in Babylonia, as
in China and Egypt the construction
OF canals was regarded as pious act,
and under the protection and blessing
of the gods. Proof of this in historic
times is afforded by inscriptions discov-
cred by Mr.. Hormuzd Rassam during
his excavations in Babylonia. In
about the year B. c. 2l50 the throne of
Babylon was seized by Kassite or
Kossean prince named Khammurabi,
who, during his reign of fifty years.
succeeded, as he says in his inscrip-
tions, in building the land'-that
is, uniting together the scattered and
independent states into one, with Baby
lon as capital. This prince, like Ur-
bahu (B. C. 4000) before him and
the great Nebuchadnezzar, not
only rebuilt the empire.
but directed his attention to the repair
of ruined temples, palaces, and public
works; and his records are found in
many of the ancient cities Among the |
inscriptions of this monarch found by |
MIR. Rassam Is one of which we have |
five copies-two written in the still sur
viving Sumerian or Turannian Ian
guage. and three in the Semitic dialect
of North Babylonia, which was fast be-
coming the national tongue. These in
scriptions were found in the ruins of
the sun-god. and relate to the kings res
toration of the temple and other pub
lie works. In the text the king says:
81 am Kbammurab. the mighty king,
king of Babylon, king of four quarters,
builder of the land, the king of whose
deeds are pleasing to the glory of Sham
as and Merodach. The tower (observ-
atory) of Sippara, with heaps of earth
like (unto) the high hills, its summit l
raised. and with a rampant encrcled
1t. The canal of Sippara to Sippara I
dug. and with double banks | regulat-
ed it." In closing this inscription he
says: "Since far distant days that which